Chapter 181: The Clash Between Shirou and the Heavenly God, Lighting the Beacon of War!
Inside the ruined temple.
Shirou stood before the Heavenly God Ouranos.
The mortal and the god had finally completed their first meeting.
Both sides had a thorough understanding of each other privately, and had tested each other countless times, trying to figure out the truth and reality covering the other.
But due to various coincidences, only now had they truly met.
In the vast hall, besides Shirou and Ouranos, there were no other gods or humans to be seen. This was because Ouranos had intentionally excluded unnecessary presences, wanting to meet Shirou alone.
This was, in a sense, a routine practice for a War Game: the leaders of the two warring sides would meet one last time to make the final confirmation of whether the War Game should proceed.
If the discussion was appropriate enough, it was entirely possible to end the war through words alone, or even unilaterally achieve victory without a fight.
However, that would only happen if there was a huge disparity in strength between the two sides.
When the strength of the warring parties was too close, or even indistinguishable, war was often the unavoidable final resort.
When Shirou arrived in the temple, he did not speak first. Similarly, the Heavenly God Ouranos did not intend to speak first either.
The mortal and the god only watched each other in a testing manner after meeting.
Ouranos's ancient pupils slowly opened, staring at Shirou. Shirou also looked back at the white-haired, white-bearded old god Ouranos, observing his posture.
Undoubtedly, both sides were wary of each other.
After all, the identity of both was sufficiently special.
Whether it was Ouranos, the Heavenly God who controlled Orario, or Shirou, who broke the old order of Orario and forced Ouranos to act personally, both had an extremely huge influence on this world.
The War Game itself, on such a grand scale, was a manifestation of their influence.
Just the slightest action from either of them could shake the world, let alone this final negotiation before the War Game. It would directly stir up the winds and clouds of the world.
"Aren't you going to say something, Heavenly God Ouranos?"
Eventually, it was Shirou who spoke first.
But this wasn't because Shirou was impatient. It was because he had finished observing the Heavenly God in front of him and could no longer gain any useful information from his appearance.
Therefore, Shirou chose to go a step further, using the pressure of words to obtain useful intelligence.
"You must be eager to start this war, eager to kill me!" Shirou looked in Ouranos's direction with a hint of mockery.
"..."
Ouranos did not immediately respond to Shirou's deliberate provocation.
He only spoke slowly after a moment of silence:
"Emiya Shirou, if a war were to take place in a mortal realm, with one side consisting entirely of men and the other entirely of women, which side do you think would win?"
"What?"
Shirou hadn't expected Ouranos to suddenly pose such a confusing question.
After a moment of silence, Shirou spoke quietly: "Although I don't know what you mean, if there were no special abilities like Falna, it would absolutely be the victory of the male side, as the fundamental physical qualities of men and women differ greatly. Conversely, in this world where Falna is widespread, the existence of Falna infinitely diminishes the difference between men and women, and victory is no longer determined by gender."
"A very correct answer."
"Why are you asking me such a question?"
Shirou looked at Ouranos, filled with confusion regarding the old Heavenly God's action.
Ouranos only spoke quietly: "I just want you to know how wonderful this era, which I created with my own hands, truly is."
"Wonderful?"
"Yes, spreading Falna across the land, allowing mortals to no longer be restricted by physical condition, gender, or age, to develop their potential as much as possible, and even to fight monsters with their bare hands. Don't you think this is a very wonderful era?"
Ouranos spoke quietly, looking at Shirou.
"And the one who personally ushered in such an era and bestowed Falna upon this world is I, Ouranos. It is also I who freed the beings of Genkai from the current situation of rampant
monsters. Don't you think you should show me more respect, and at least not casually destroy this hard-won order?"
Shirou hadn't expected Ouranos to say such words, and he even heard a sincere plea in them.
But his expression did not waver because of this.
Even if the old Heavenly God in front of him tried to use a painful strategy to gain his understanding, he would never waver in his belief.
"If you want me to approve of you, you shouldn't have captured Hestia in the first place."
"Hestia holds a special significance to me. Her Authority is the necessary tinder."
"Tinder?"
"Emiya Shirou, give up fighting me and join forces with me." Ouranos did not answer Shirou's question, but instead extended his hand to Shirou. "You and I should not be in conflict, but should understand and coexist with each other. If we can cooperate, Genkai will officially enter an era where mortals and gods understand each other and coexist harmoniously. This is far better than purely destroying the old order!"
"Do you think we can understand each other?"
"Of course. The gears of the era have already started turning. From the day Falna was bestowed upon mortals, mortals have already evolved.
That is why I am willing to have this conversation with you, and even willing to regard you, a mortal, as an equal existence." Ouranos declared loudly.
"Furthermore, instead of us being hostile to each other and wasting power, why don't we join hands to eliminate the Dungeon and the disasters, allowing this world to be completely free from threats and troubles? Don't you think that is a perfect future?"
"Can I interpret your words as making empty promises?"
"If you think my words are baseless, you can observe this world with your own eyes. Look at the state of the places that have not received Falna, and the prosperity that Orario, which has received Falna, has achieved. Isn't all of this enough to prove that this era I lead is wonderful for mortals?"
"..."
Ouranos's words were righteous and sincere.
He seemed to truly believe the rhetoric he was speaking, without a single flaw.
It was difficult for Shirou to directly break through the other party with words, and he couldn't deny this new era based on Orario.
However, as the saying goes, to judge whether a person is good or bad, don't look at what they say, but what they do.
Just because Ouranos's words were flawless didn't mean his intentions were flawless.
In Ouranos's past actions, there were many flaws that could be clearly captured.
"Ouranos, if everything you say is true, why did you create divine-powered monsters?" Shirou looked at Ouranos. "If you truly cared for mortals, why would you try every possible means to gain control of divine power in Genkai? Ultimately, you only created the current order for your own selfish desires."
"I do not deny my selfish desires," Ouranos answered frankly. "After all, we gods are existences that naturally surpass mortals. With greater power and a higher status, why shouldn't the gods be transcendent existences far more noble than mortals? My goal is simply to be able to use divine power in Genkai, to grant the gods the right to freely use divine power in Genkai. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"That conflicts with the equality you mentioned before, doesn't it?"
"No, it doesn't conflict. I spoke of a possible future... That is to say, if, in the future, mortals like you can emerge, who gain divine power equal to that of a god through their own means, then such a person will have the right to stand on equal footing with the gods. Mortals other than that are, after all, merely a group of ants."
Ouranos quietly expounded his theory. "For the peace of the world, order is necessary. And to establish order, one must determine hierarchy and status.
Powerful mortals manage weaker mortals, and then the gods manage the powerful mortals, indirectly managing the weaker mortals. In this way, the world's order takes shape, and everything becomes orderly. Don't you think that is the truly wonderful future?"
"I just think your idea is crazy."
Shirou frowned, looking at Ouranos.
The other party's words sounded somewhat reasonable, but in essence, it was nothing more than an elitist survival of the fittest, establishing the order of Genkai by making the gods a privileged class, standing above mortals.
But for Genkai, the gods were the outsiders.
There was no reason for mortals to have to bow and scrape to the gods and become targets of the gods' exploitation.
"Mortals always fail to understand transcendent thoughts and ideas, Emiya Shirou. It seems you are just one of the common masses."
Ouranos looked at Shirou with a regretful gaze, as if saddened by his lack of understanding.
"Then let's look at it from another perspective. If the gods hadn't descended a thousand years ago, and I hadn't built Babel and created the Falna system, what do you think Genkai would look like? Mortals would have been completely wiped out, and Genkai would have been destroyed by the disaster from the Underground! The Falna system I created saved this world, and naturally, a certain price must be paid. This is the law of nature."
"What a Law of Nature."
Shirou was almost provoked to laugh by Ouranos.
Ouranos, however, seemed to have completely missed his expression, or rather, as a Heavenly God, he didn't really care about the attitude of a mortal.
So he spoke quietly: "Emiya Shirou, become my subordinate.
I recognize your value, and I am certain that you are a man who can truly change the world. But your current thoughts are still too limited.
You are only unilaterally thinking about how to destroy the old order, and you don't know how to construct a new one. If you can come to my side, we can join hands to create a brand new order for Genkai. That is the best ending for this world and for mortals."
"...Perhaps what you say makes sense. Perhaps you are indeed right." Shirou looked at Ouranos. "However, no matter how eloquently you speak, you cannot sway me, because you have actually misjudged me. You have missed a very important point about me, Emiya Shirou."
"What!?"
"I have never actually cared about this world, nor about the so-called order, the so-called justice. The only thing important to me is simply to protect the people around me."
Shirou revealed his thoughts, the dark side he had always kept hidden.
Yes, because Shirou rarely spoke about himself, most people subconsciously misunderstood Emiya Shirou as a man who pursued justice, fighting for absolute justice and a greater overall good.
However, only Shirou himself knew that he had never pursued justice.
At least, on that snowy night, the night he decided to fight the Ainsworth family, he had already made his choice.
He would rather abandon justice than fail to save the people he wanted to save!
"..."
Hearing Shirou's words, Ouranos fell silent.
It was as if he had encountered something that defied his understanding for the first time.
After looking at Shirou deeply for a few moments, he showed a look of regret and spoke quietly: "It seems you have made your choice, and it will not be changed, Emiya Shirou."
"That's right. I will definitely save Hestia."
"It seems that for you and me, there is only war."
Ouranos looked at Shirou quietly.
His eyes then became completely cold, as if he had lost all interest in the man Emiya Shirou, looking at him as one would look at an ant.
Undoubtedly, this was the essence of the Heavenly God Ouranos.
The fact that he could set up a game in Genkai for a millennium, secretly plotting and keeping everything under his control, indicated that for an existence like him, mortals were nothing more than mere pawns.
Perhaps, occasionally, some surprising subjects would pop up on the mortal chessboard, but that was just an error that occurred by chance.
Ouranos was essentially still uninterested in mortals. He was simply pursuing his own goal and would stop at nothing to achieve it.
Otherwise, Ouranos would not have been suppressing the Dungeon beneath the Guild for a thousand years.
To be able to endure such loneliness, to be able to strip away his ego to this extent, meant that Ouranos fundamentally lacked humanity.
The more an existence surpasses mortals, the more fundamentally distant it is from them.
An old Heavenly God who abandoned everything of himself, solely to suppress the Dungeon and save the world, confining all his ego underground... Such an extreme existence only existed in fantasy.
And with the breakdown of the final negotiation between Shirou and Ouranos, the beacon of war was completely lit around the entire island that had turned into a battlefield!
The War Game had officially begun!
Important Announcement! New Fanfifction
Cote: Daily Intelligence System
Shimizu Akira unexpectedly transmigrated into the world of "Classroom of the Elite," becoming an ordinary student in Class D.
Relying on the advantage of foresight thanks to his daily intelligence system, Shimizu Akira navigates between the various factions.
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